Friday, April 11, 2014

Cyberpunk: Replicating the ambient perfection of neon lights and corruption.

To me, the genre always meant exciting, new, exhilarating horizons being broadened, applying both mentally and perspective-wise a mesmerizing effect on my personal being. That is when the cyberpunk-ill medium transcends from the focus on one aspect and instead triumphantly establishes domination in every way.

Portraying flawed characters and an ironic seemingly idyllic view to the future whether it's dominated by a certain political view or a technological discovery/revolution, there is a thin line between breathtaking and thought provocative to just lasers and neon lights. Though I love those things a whole lot. They may be part of a niche, narrow view of the genre, but I still hold them dear, they are elements of a greater whole, even if they appear as shallow members solely created to wow introductees.

Aren't they pretty?

I believe that taking any story and transforming to a Cyberpunk impression is the easier way, and the most common one. Always have I felt that to be the wrong way. While it's nice to see a plot under different glasses, perhaps adjusting its parameters differently. It works in the same way that for example a live action movie is remaked as an anime. Not a huge fan, but it's interesting enough to give it a fair chance.

However creating a reality based on estimated projection values on combining factors, plowing through plot holes and physical rules to narrate a story arc that would only be done justice under those calculated, specific list of circumstances and variables, is where the genre shines. It should always be visible to us, that it's not about telling conventional stories within unconventional surroundings, but rather - mystify the audience with the setting, engulfing the reader, in ways that he feels the primal instincts and fears in different unconventional ways, purging reality of all the veils, like...